Appearances
by lily22
Summary: Warning: Sort of Character death. Yugi seems to have gotten over Yami's sudden disappearance, but things aren't always what they seem.


Appearances  
  
Author's Note: I do not own Yugioh. This is an AU fic. Warning: Character death! Well, sort of. One character doesn't exactly die, but it's close enough, and also, neither character actually dies during this fic. Have I confused you by now? Good.  
  
****  
  
Tea smiled kindly at the boy walking beside her. He was as cheerful as ever lately. It had been almost a year since his Yami's sudden disappearance, but the subject was still tender, so nobody said anything about it. At first, Yugi had cried terribly, almost dehydrating himself. Then, after about five months, give or take a few, he managed to get over it. Sure, every once in a while, he'd get a sort of glazed look, and you'd know that he was still thinking about it. Even worse was when you knew he was trying to mentally contact his Yami, and when he didn't succeed, he burst into tears, as if only just realizing that his Yami had died.  
  
Tea was jerked back to the present by a brilliant smile from Yugi. It was hard to tell that barely more than half a year ago, he was crying hysterically for days straight!  
  
"Sure you don't want to come with us, Yugi?" Tristan asked. Receiving a shake of the head, he shrugged. Yugi had been going directly home every day after school. Nobody questioned it, as it seemed to improve Yugi's condition. And with one last cheerful goodbye, Yugi was gone.  
  
****  
  
The instant Yugi was out of sight of his friends, he broke into a run. Racing all the way back to the game shop, he didn't stop until he was in the bathroom. He lifted his Millennium Puzzle up, so that it rested in a nest of red, black, and blonde hair, because he never took it off. He gently scrubbed his face and neck, before replacing the bronze puzzle.  
  
As soon as Yami was gone, the Puzzle had turned bronze. This made perfect sense to Yugi, who explained it with much confidence. Yami had made everything seem golden, and now that he was gone, there was no more gold in the world. After repeating this many times, everybody came to accept it as thus, even Yugi himself.  
  
As soon as Yugi had caught his breath, he once again began running, though this time, it was to the garage. He hastily opened the garage door, and hopped onto his mountain bike. Granted, the bike was a bit too big for him, but it was one of his favorite possessions. In kicking away the metal that held the bike upright, he almost fell to the side, but he immediately started to pedal, and the momentum carried him out on to the driveway.  
  
He sped down the driveway, not bothering to put on the brakes, and smiled as the wind blew back his hair. He turned on to the street, and followed the same route that he'd followed every day before for the past six months.  
  
He had memorized the road. Two miles downhill, turn, two more miles downhill, turn, and then four of the most incredible miles going straight into the center of the earth. At least, that's how it seemed to the small boy, currently speeding down the first two miles. After a while, he abruptly turned to the right, and felt his elbow scrape against the fence of the person who lived there.  
  
He hadn't turned by sight, since the wind resistance was practically squashing his eyeballs flat. No, he had turned by instinct, automatically remembering where he was supposed to turn. He had been doing this for over half a year already.  
  
He smiled happily at the next two miles, since they were a bit steeper than the first. He was wearing a helmet, since anybody caught without one would be forced off his or her bike. What a spoilsport policemen were!  
  
The wind resistance on the driveway was nothing compared to this. Here, not only did the wind rip his hair back, it also threatened to take his head with it. Yugi, however, paid no attention to threats. After all, what could they do to him when he was oblivious to pain? The death of his Yami seemed to fill his soul, not allowing room for an ounce of extra pain, even physically.  
  
He once again screeched to the right, laughing gleefully at the even steeper slope. Here, he felt as if his whole body would be ripped off the bike, but he was oblivious to the danger. Instead, the ecstasy filled his mind: the ecstasy of speeding downhill, as fast as a bullet. He was reckless, every afternoon, for a full hour after school was over. This helped him to deal with the death of his Yami, somehow, so he never stopped doing it.  
  
Deep in the very back of his consciousness, he had a strange reason for doing this. In rushing down on a bike, it felt like he was soaring, but it also felt as if one day, he'd go so fast that he'd really go soaring, up into the heavens, where his Yami would be waiting for him. Of course, he didn't share that theory with anybody. He even hid it from his own self, so that if you asked him, he really wouldn't even know that he had even thought such a thing.  
  
Of course, he had another more practical reason for continuing his joyrides. In a way, it seemed to bring his Yami back. His Yami was brave, confident, and able to accomplish anything. He would certainly have loved the bike rides, loved the danger with the joy. Even if Yugi was light, and Yami was dark, they were still the same being, and Yugi was sure that if he acted like his Yami, he would certainly bring him back.  
  
Yugi's bike suddenly caught on a rock, causing it to buck the rider off. Yugi really went flying, and for the brief seconds that he was in the air, he knew that his Yami would always be there, if not physically, then mentally. And right before Yugi made impact with the earth, he smiled happily.  
  
****  
  
Author's Note: So? What did you think this story meant? I kind of wrote it so that it could be interpreted in two different ways.  
  
One, Yami disappears, and basically dies. Yugi tries to get over it, but he never does, and goes insane with grief. Then, when he can't take it anymore, he dies.  
  
Two, Yami disappears, but doesn't really die. Yugi gets over it, but is still sad. This is for the people who don't really like character death. You can imagine that Yami comes back, or something. 


End file.
